As a child, my dad was a horse trainer and we moved ALL the time. From ranch to ranch to ranch... wherever the horses were that needed training. Texas, Louisiana, California were just the states, he turned down Colorado darn it!
But many, many more were the towns, the ranches in all those states.
We lived on many very beautiful, huge ranches. Childhood for us was amazing. We had horses instead of bikes. We had pastures and arenas and orchards and vineyards to play in. The horses my dad and soon my older sister trained and showed, were million dollar quarter horses. So there was good reason to move and move and move.
Our swing in Lockford, CA, was a long rope hung from a huge tree with a horse's halter attached to the end. Just perfect for fastening around yourself. Then you climbed the beautiful white wood fence, that went on forever, and threw yourself off into the wild blue swing yonder. Here also was the "tricky, scary" corn field, yes we did get lost more than once. Mom had to stand on the fence and yell at us to shake the stalks so she could tell where we were and talk us back.
My sisters and I were all born in different places, I was born in East Texas, Brenda was born in Baton Rouge and Sue was born in Pasadena.
I went to 2 first grades, 3 second grades and 2 third grades. Life was not boring.
In Turlock, CA, mom worked picking peaches in the picking season and at the cannery after that. In the orchards, she would put us 3 girls on a quilt on the ground. She would pick and watch us until she was too far away and then would move the quilt to where she was. She did this all day long throughout peach picking season.
In Clovis, CA, we would ride our horses down and across the road through the orchard and then through the vineyard on our way to the grocery store.
In Baton Rouge, LA the huge yard itself was a playground, like something you see in the movies. Huge trees covering a large yard with stone walkways leading to things like benches and birdbaths. It was here that we had a trampoline park, great place!! A big fenced in place with trampolines all lined up and level with the ground, they each had places cut out or holes under them, so your down bounce was underground! Sweet! I also remember how excruciatingly hot those tarps were. You had to wear socks to protect your feet from the hot rubber.
There were several ranches near Houston. We lived at a ranch in Tomball. This is where we rode out the bad hurricane Carla. This is also where we each had our own pet turtles and we consistently had turtle races with each other and other kids that visited. We also tied strings around June bugs and had June bug wrestling bouts. I cannot believe it, but this is where we went swimming in the pond out in the wilderness that we were told not to go near! We were little kids!! Adventurous to say the least.
The whole point of all of these descriptions is to say, moving is in my blood. I remember it as fun, new and exciting. It is the adventure I guess of new places, new experiences - where can my life lead me next???
Too bad it is just 3 states and not the world, maybe someday, maybe not.
1 comment:
love this one, sh
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